Austroads preps to scale Digital Trust Service after mDL testing success

Austroads has declared its Digital Trust Service (DTS) to enable the use of mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) for attribute and identity verification ready to scale to the national level.

Tests of the pre-production or beta version of the DTS were successful, allowing relying parties to use issuing authorities’ public keys to authenticate mDLs issued by states and territories. The tests were carried out at the Identity and Verifiable Credentials Summit 2024 (IVC24) and the 10th International Interoperability Test Event, both in October. IVC24 was sponsored by Fast, Thales and Entrust.

Austroads CEO Geoff Allan says the DTS provides assurance to relying parties that the mDL complies with international standards for privacy, security and interoperability. He hopes to place keys for mDLs from every Australian state and territory in the DTS within the next year and a half.

“At these events, leading wallet providers and verifiers demonstrated that their technologies could seamlessly work together,” Allan says. “All participants were able to host their cryptographic keys on the Austroads DTS, with 350 tests conducted by 21 providers.”

The tests were “a resounding success,” he says. They consisted of 589 total transactions involving mDLs, and others with different documents compliant with ISO 18013. No problems were reported with transactions using the DTS.

The trials included Australian officials, relying parties, and digital ID providers like Idemia and Mattr, which built the VICAL for the DTS. Participants also included representatives of the European Commission, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and the Association of European Vehicle and Driver Registration Authorities.

“It is great to see organizations like Austroads and AAMVA stepping up to build the underlying infrastructure to allow this technology work wherever we are in the world,” says Donnie Scott, CEO of Idemia Public Security, North America, which provided CAT devices similar to those used in American airports for the demonstration.

Florent Tournois of the EU’s Potential consortium and France’s digital wallet program emphasizes that a standards-based approach “will bring security to online services, reduce fraud around identity, and eliminate paper-based fraud.”

“With the integration of tap-to-verify technology, organizations can now utilize off the shelf point-of-scale hardware and benefit from seamless, secure, and efficient acceptance of digital credentials,” notes Mattr CEO Claire Barber. “This advancement means convenience, and the assurance that every verification respects user privacy. The Austroads events demonstrated how digital credential capabilities can be implemented across boundaries, at scale, and be an integral part of everyday interactions.”

FaceTec VP of Global Standards Andrew Hughes notes the importance of the DTS as critical trust infrastructure that can be part of “an international trust fabric” for mDLs and mobile document (mdoc) credentials.

Hughes will join a representative from NIST for a Biometric Update webinar discussing the integration and interoperability of mDLS and digital wallets based on ISO 18013 on December 19.

Article Topics

age verification  |  Australia  |  Austroads  |  digital ID  |  Digital Trust Service (DTS)  |  digital wallets  |  identity verification  |  ISO 18013  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)